The detection and/or quantitation of specific nucleic acid sequences is an important technique for identifying and classifying microorganisms, diagnosing infectious diseases, detecting and characterizing genetic abnormalities, identifying genetic changes associated with cancer, studying genetic susceptibility to disease, and measuring response to various types of treatment. Such procedures are also useful in detecting and quantitating microorganisms in foodstuffs, water, industrial and environmental samples, seed stocks, and other types of material where the presence of specific microorganisms may need to be monitored. Other applications are found in the forensic sciences, anthropology, archaeology, and biology where measurement of the relatedness of nucleic acid sequences has been used to identify criminal suspects, resolve paternity disputes, construct genealogical and phylogenetic trees, and aid in classifying a variety of life forms.
A number of methods to detect and/or quantitate nucleic acid sequences are well known in the art. These include hybridization to a labeled probe, and various permutations of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), coupled with hybridization to a labeled probe. See, e.g., Mullis et al., “Process for Amplifying, Detecting and/or Cloning Nucleic Acid Sequences,” U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,195; Mullis, “Process for Amplifying Nucleic Acid Sequences,” U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,202; Mullis et al., “Process for Amplifying, Detecting and/or Cloning Nucleic Acid Sequences,” U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,159; Mullis et al. (1987) Meth. Enzymol. 155, 335-350; and Murakawa et al. (1988) DNA 7, 287-295. The requirement of repeated cycling of reaction temperature between several different and extreme temperatures is a disadvantage of the PCR procedure. In order to make PCR convenient, expensive programmable thermal cycling instruments are required.
Additionally, Transcription-Mediated Amplification (TMA) methods may be used to synthesize multiple copies of a target nucleic acid sequence autocatalytically under conditions of substantially constant temperature, ionic strength, and pH in which multiple RNA copies of the target sequence autocatalytically generate additional copies. See, e.g., Kacian et al., “Nucleic Acid Sequence Amplification Methods,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,491, and Kacian et al, “Nucleic Acid Sequence Amplification Methods,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,824,518, the contents of each of which patents are hereby incorporated by reference herein. TMA is useful for generating copies of a nucleic acid target sequence for purposes which include assays to quantitate specific nucleic acid sequences in clinical, environmental, forensic and similar samples, cloning and generating probes. TMA is a robust and highly sensitive amplification system with demonstrated efficacy. TMA overcomes many of the problems associated with PCR-based amplification systems. In particular, temperature cycling is not required. Other transcription-based amplification methods are disclosed by Malek et al., “Enhanced Nucleic Acid Amplification Process,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,238; Davey et al., “Nucleic Acid Amplification Process,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,818; Davey et al., “Method for the Synthesis of Ribonucleic Acid (RNA),” U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,586; Davey et al., “Nucleic Acid Amplification Process,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,517; Burg et al., “Selective Amplification of Target Polynucleotide Sequences,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,591; and Burg et al., “Selective Amplification of Target Polynucleotide Sequences,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,410,276.
An inherent result of highly sensitive nucleic amplification systems is the emergence of side-products. Side-products include molecules which may, in some systems, interfere with the amplification reaction, thereby lowering specificity. This is because limited amplification resources, including primers and enzymes needed in the formation of primer extension and transcription products are diverted to the formation of side-products. In some situations, the appearance of side-products can also complicate the analysis of amplicon production by various molecular techniques.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a robust nucleic acid amplification system to synthesize multiple copies of a target nucleic acid sequence autocatalytically under conditions of substantially constant temperature, ionic strength, and pH which reduces the appearance of side-products, thereby increasing specificity and improving detection and quantitation of amplification products.